John Lannan faces Randall Delgado in the nightcap of this doubleheader.

Must-win game for the Nationals? It sure feels like it after they've dropped three in a row, including the first two games of this NL East showdown with the Braves. Their lead over Atlanta has shrunk to 1 1/2 games, and the last thing you want is a series finale tomorrow in which the Nats have to win to avoid falling out of first place for the first time in two months.

So the pressure is on John Lannan tonight as he makes his first big-league start of the season. It's been a roller coaster year for the left-hander, but if there is one encouraging sign entering this game, here it is: In his career, Lannan is 8-5 with a 3.25 ERA against the Braves. He's got more wins and a lower ERA against Atlanta than any other division opponent.

Bryce Harper is not in the lineup for Game 2, his bruised left ankle still bothering him and preventing him from swinging the bat. We'll see if he's available off the bench.

I think Bryce could use a break. Maybe the injury will turn out to be a good thing.Go John. I just bought your Expo's hat you wore in batting practice in 2010. Paid $220 for it at the memorabilia stand last night.

Still hoping for a JZim bunt appearance tonight. And I agree that the time off will not hurt Bryce. Watching a game could be just the ticket for him. Bernie is doing fine – he is so relieved that Nady and Ankiel were the dfa victims. Could use some offense tonight. Seriously hoping the bullpen gets it's collective head on straight.

They need Morse and Moore to produce because LaRoche and Harper are tailing off. Bernadina is hot but he's not a run producer. Not sure Desmond is feeling all that much better when he hits. Looks like they may need another offensive catcher other than Flores … but that might require another deal where the Nats pick up a future starter ala Ramos. No guarantees Ramos can catch after the surgeries nor the recovery time required. He could end up in the minors for a year.

sofa – can i quote you from last thread about the negativity?"Section 3, My PFB Hitterish Sofa said…Phillies fans. We wait 40 years, and then turn into Phillies fans. Perfect."(notice i said "can i" and not "may i.") best comment i've read here in weeks

The Pitchers let us down last night, hitters let us down this afternoon. Now its time to regroup take the game seriously, which I never got the feeling the pitchers did last night or batters today, but then again some people say I put too much into body language which in both cases was that of a non winner. now back to being a winner.

Funny that Section 3 should say that – my philly relatives spent the night here on the way home from vacation last night, and of course, the phils were on mlb. It's just really interesting watching a game with them. If you think some posters in here are negative? Luckily, they were sound asleep when the Nats game ended and they left this morning while I was still asleep. I am telling you – we have fallen way too much in love with being in first place every single day of the season. Every single thing that happens is now viewed through that lens. Let's play a good game tonight. We seem to be struggling through some kind of transitional phase and they are hot, hot, hot. Go Nats! Go Lannan!

Quite possibly one of the biggest games in our short history, lucky for us we have our ace Stephen…..oh darn, ok we have our wins leader Gio Gonz…..damn, surely we have the bulldog Jordan Zimmer….crap..best of luck John….we really need you. gyfng…….

Lannan gets 2 outs then walks Hayward on 4 pitches so that Chipper can come up with a man on. Was that reasonable thinking. Not one strike in the attempt? This pitching is getting worse by the day this week.

2 walks 2 hits 2 runs first inning. Looks like the guy who had a 7.46 ERA, 4 home runs and an 0 -3 record in July pitching for AAA Syracuse. Bring up Zach Duke for the next double header if you want a veteran or JF Mandel to try someone new who is effective.

Werth with an rbi at potomac! Something to make you smile? It won't matter what John Lannan does if our offense doesn't follow suit. We should get to this guy big time. The Atlanta hitters took advantage of a guy who has been throwing to AAA hitters immediately. Want to bet we don't do that? This guy is terrible, he'll be cy young soon.

What was that about last night being just 1 game in 162? You just don't lose like that and come back. The vast majority of this roster will need to be cleaned out after this epic collapse. Rizzo will need to be fired. Johnson will need to be fired. Keep the young core and Zimmerman. Everyone else on the chopping block.

THiS is when we need to stand by our guys and send all the positive vibes there that we possibly can. Instead of planning for the fall…and I'm as guilty as anyone and more guilty than many…we need all to focus on THIS game and then THIS game. It feels like everyone has gotten out ahead of themselves, and we are measuring the Nats' performance on an imaginary future.It's baseball. One game at a time. Stay positive and stay in the now.And GYFNG!

Randall Del Gado gave up 6 runs in 5 innings to Indianapolis last start, and now looks Don Drysdale. Come on hitters 1 run now in 17 innings, back to the weak hitters again. Everyone line for the Zim shot that helped him.

Oh come on, DJB. That's absurd, unless it was tongue in cheek.We can allow for some black humor during this stretch, but break in some perspective.As one of our former presidents likes to say:The headlines are bad, but the trend lines are good.

mick said…djinFl. said…Mick- you called these men over rated garbage?You wish you could play half as well as any of them. They all worked hard to get here and you must have not put forth the effort they did, so now you can only criticize. I hope the young kids reading this site have been instructed by their parents that you are just one of those folks that have no class.you need to lighten up pal, you obviously cherry pick the post from by me that you don't like. For starters, ge it right, i said there was some garbage and that 2013 the Nats will be very good, so at least get what I posted right.stop being a nasty troll, I won't cross the bridge your under, lol

He's doing fine – getting ground ball outs. Do you blame him for being a big shaky in the first? They are great hitters and went right after him. We did not do the same with Cy Delgado. Lannan actually doing better than Stras and Gio did in their last starts.I am officially calling for Stras and JZim to pinch hit tonight. The offense needs their help. Go Nats!!!! If you can't stand the roller coaster of an up and coming team trying to figure out how to become a winning team then I suggest you become a yankees fan.

as per mick:"because by then our stars in Potomac and Syracuse will be ready and the remaining over rated garbage that we count on to show leadership after games like last night will be some other teams garbage"looks like a pretty accurate quote to me.

Lannan breaks up the no hitter.Lombo's strike out is the first in a long time where I don't blame the batter for not swinging, that thing was at least 9 inches higher than the strike zone has been all night.

and just like that, Lannan is through top of the fourth also. Not the greatest pitchers in Nats history but I liked what he did in dark days of Nats times. I hope when rosters expand, he is up here for good and gets to do some heroic stuff for us.

happy 2 pylon said…as per mick:"because by then our stars in Potomac and Syracuse will be ready and the remaining over rated garbage that we count on to show leadership after games like last night will be some other teams garbage"looks like a pretty accurate quote to me.what part of the word remaining" do you and dfl whatever do not understand and my below post proves that both of you cherry picks what you do not likemick said…Joe seam… Rizzo is excellent and so is Davey. we are a year away of finding the final pieces to win with.

Got to love it get 2 singles to start the inning. Morse has 3 really good pitches to hit and can't get one of them fair at all. then a ball 59 feet he swings at One of 3 pet peeves . (K looking is another), and LaRoche did the third grounding into a double play. Especially because pull a ball in the middle or outer half. Just send that ball to left, why try and pull it.

We hit into a lot of double plays. My plan as imaginary manager for the night is to just let John Lannan pitch 9 innings tonight and then everyone is available for tomorrow. The offense is going to go 0 for the day, so what does it matter. Uhoh – the negative disease is creeping up on me after almost 24 hours of sub par baseball. Actually at this time last night I think we were still winning. That happened so fast.

I bet Mark and Ted Lerner have to be a little ticked off, they are filling the park up and their players and so called stars cant hit their way out of a paper bag against pitchers that are 4-9 with ERA's at 5 runs!

So – the Strasburg/Hanson so-called pitchers duel was 11-10. This game with the two AAA replacement pitchers is 2-1. Go figure. This game just bamboozles me. Lannan is the master at ground ball outs. Gio and Strassie should be taking notes. And – whew – we are not 0 fer today anymore.

I admit Lannan has done well considering he has walked 2, HBP 2, and allowed 5 hits. He at least didn't implode as used to happen back in the day of Giggleman's Island. This is already his best start for July. Substantially helped by excellent defenders behind him. Which is how this script is supposed run … so not as bad as folks may think. I was expecting a blow out.

21 innings now and still no hits with RISP. bases load 0 outs. LaRoche sticks hot on a pitch way low. Desi a slow roller scores a run but on a 3-1 count, and Espi swings at one outside to K. That is just not good baseball. However pitching is better this game than it started.Come on guys start hitting with men in scoring position. First few guys up in the innings have been fine.By the way the wishing for homers is worthless.

We really should have scored more there. Very proud of Lannan tonight. You don't have to be a power pitcher to get guys out. See – Milone, Tommy. He has looked better than Stras and Gio in their last outings. No muss, no fuss. Gio and Stras both seem to struggle with expending too much energy on emotions. John is a veteran of the wars. He can hit and bunt, too. It might not be flashy, but it can work.

Manassas Nats' Fan said…21 innings now and still no hits with RISP. bases load 0 outs. LaRoche sticks hot on a pitch way low. Desi a slow roller scores a run but on a 3-1 count, and Espi swings at one outside to K. That is just not good baseball. totally agree

As much as I disagree with Peric's posts (usually all of them) I'll give him some props for admiting he was wrong about Lannan tonight.John pitched a heck of a good game tonight and got his team into a position to win with minimal pitch count. Stras and Gio should take notes on his efforts and try to copy them.

Mick just saw your reply—This is what you said about our players" the remaining over rated garbage that we count on to show leadership after games like last night will be some other teams garbage."None of our players should be compared to garbage. And I am not a troll. I paid to be part of this site when it started. You showed up later and have added nothing positive to this site.

With his gutsy start tonight, Lannan has put himself back into the conversation again. Should Rizzoa) gauge his immediate market value and trade him b) send him back down and save him for September to replace Strasburgc) keep him on the roster and find a taker for either Henry Rodriguez or Tom Gorzelanny

Not sure about Espinosa haters but I am aware of alot of knowledgeable posters expressed concerns about his inability to het that loop out of his left handed swing.Heck, I even recall one poster stating a couple of days ago that he's improved enough to maybe move to the lead off spot when Werth returnsWait a minute……that was me.

djinFl. said…Mick just saw your reply— You showed up later and have added nothing positive to this site.really, I've added NOTHING positive to this site? well then it is clear you cherry pick and I have a problem with that and it only appears to be me that you do it too. Like I said, I won't cross your bridge.

Joe Seamhead said…Mick, you are really coming across as un-informed, how so?———-mick, you have been trashing almost every member on the team especially for the past 24 hours, from Ryan Zimmerman to ALR to DeRosa to Sean Burnett. Burnett has overall been a rock this year, DeRosa has been terrific in his limited chances, ALR makes this whole infield better, and Ryan Zim has been a joy for most of us to watch. Do they screw up? Of course they do, baseball is a game of failure, but these guys all perform without failing at a very acceptable level overall. There isn't a team in the majors that wouldn't grab Sean Burnett given the chance.

"whats the over under that Brunett (who began this nightmare series in the first place) gives up another 3-4 runs, lol""I don't think Clip is ready mentally, why not let him sit this out?"maybe he just needs a few dozen drinks. works for mick.

We should all just ignore the posters like Mick. What is the point of dealing with people like Mick who are just trying to rile people up and who then say that they are glad that they are wrong? The idiocy of people on a baseball site who think that any one game determines a season is the height of foolishness.

We should all just ignore the posters like Mick. What is the point of dealing with people like Mick who are just trying to rile people up and who then say that they are glad that they are wrong? The idiocy of people on a baseball site who think that any one game determines a season is the height of foolishness.